Ag Commissioner Departs Part 2

Colorado Ag Commisisoner, John Salazar, has retired. The one time congressman was appointed to the ag position in 2011 by Governor Hickenlooper. No one has been named as yet to replace Salazar who says that person will still have issues to deal with.

SALAZAR: As we move forward we have to start educating our younger generations just to the importance of food and farm families here in Colorado. Colorado enjoys great, great opportunities as far as agriculture. The ag industry in Colorado actually is the second largest contributor to the states economy

He talks about one of the other important issues he was proud to be a part of.

SALAZAR: For the last 38 years the commissioners prior to me have been trying to consolidate the Department of Agriculture and they could never get it over that political hump and we were able to actually get that done. We call it the CDA, the Colorado Agriculture Department office consolidation. We moved to a new headquarters here in Broomfield, CO. We now are going to be housing all the divisions within the department under this one roof with the exception of the state fair.

The first phase has already been completed.

SALAZAR: By completing the consolidation see will actually save the Colorado taxpayer over $350-thousand dollars in general fund. We expect to create an operational funding probably an additional $600 some thousand dollars in the near future.

And that's today's report. I'm Greg Martin, thanks for listening to Colorado Ag Today on the Ag Information Network of the West.